Carseat in the rain?

kangato2roos

New member
I should probably know the answer to this probably silly question, but am not sure and a quick search didn't turn up much.

My son's MA got very wet yesterday. I didn't notice he'd fiddled with the window and rolled it down some. It poured rain last night for about an hour, very heavy with hail and flooding and all that lovely mess. Anyway, not knowing he'd managed to roll down his window some (rf his arms are long enough to reach the crank... it's an old fashioned roll window, not power), I didn't run out to assure the car was all closed up. His seat, everything I touched, was soaking wet this morning (as was the seat of the car and the blanket I had in there).

Do I need to replace the seat?
 
ADS

lorismurph

Senior Community Member
I would say no, just take the seats out of the car, let them dry out good, hang the harness and cover up. Since you can wash the covers in the machine, they get pretty wet in there. As for the harness, it is really soap and chemicals that damage them and I would be willing to bet that even though they were wet, the cover was probably more wet. I would say dry and you're fine.
 

stayinhomewithmy6

Senior Community Member
A few years ago I had this happen with a spare Touriva (pre-cursor to the Scenera) I had, except that it literally sat outside in the driveway in the middle of a downpour. At the time (and still today) I think it's probably okay to use, but "probably" doesn't cut it for me when it comes to car seat safety, so I replaced the harness since that's the part I was worried about. I also watched the metal parts of the seat for any signs of rust, but never saw anything that concerned me.
 

kangato2roos

New member
I took it out of the car this morning and took the cover off. There was water pooled in the seat under the cover and foam. The harness itself still felt really wet. I've got it all sitting in the bathroom spread out to dry and the cover is in the wash because it smelled musty. It sat in the car, wet, for 12 hours after the rain stopped before I discovered it.

I was able to squeeze water drops out of the harness when I pulled it out of the car. I'll go ahead and order a replacement harness from Britax. It just makes me nervous with how wet it feels/felt.

Thanks for the advice!
 

mommyto4

New member
I would definitely replace the harness Since you are not supposed to soak them. The rest of the seat should be fine though.
 

2BunniesMommy

Well-known member
With it being that wet, I am with you 100% on replacing the harness. I would feel comfortable using the rest of the seat, after a good cleaning. What a pain to have to deal with.
 

lorismurph

Senior Community Member
Agreed on replacing the harness although if you don't have another seat, I would still use it until the new one came.
 

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